“A steady win for diversity in the UK games industry”, reveals by Ukie
“The UK Games Industry Census is a first-of-its-kind report, delivering the most comprehensive and detailed assessment of diversity within the UK games industry workforce ever conducted.”
The UK Games Industry Census has been released by Ukie, the UK games industry's trade body. It provides some fascinating statistics about who makes up the industry and clarifies that progress is gradually being achieved.
This is the company's second census, and the only one of its sort all over the world, with its mission to help inspire changes in the once-rigid industry. Information collected from 3,600 industry professionals from around the United Kingdom helped discover that diversity situation has improved marginally from the previous census in 2020, which seems to be an applause.
According to the census, men make up 67% of the workforce, while women make up 30% and non-binary people of 3%. This is a modest change from the previous census, which reported that 70% of the industry was male, with 28% female, and 2% left of non-binary.
The percentage of people who identified as having a sexual orientation other than heterosexual increased from 21% to 24%. Ukie claims that this figure is much higher than the general adult population. As more and more are breaking the typical “white-straight-man” stereotype in this industry, this is an urgent call for all the underrepresented group to stand up, improve your skills and get in action to secure your position.
However, the ethnic group figure is nearly the same as it was previously. 66% percent of the workforce identified as White British, while 24% identified as White Other, a smaller 2% as Black and 5% as Asian.
Gaming also has a higher proportion of neurodivergent people than the average working-age population. Overall, 18% of respondents said they had at least one neurodevelopmental disorder. More data and analysis can be found in the full report here.
Sandhya Devanathan, Asia-Pacific vice president for the global gaming business at Meta, has said that “The gaming industry should reflect the growing diversity of its demographics if it wants to succeed” after finding out that “many gamers would play more or would identify better with the game if they saw themselves reflected in the game as characters.” in Meta’s December 2020 research report.
Therefore, it is time to take “a leap of faith” for all woman and other underrepresented group if they want to join and switch to this disruptive industry. Diversity Champion will be a good place to start if you are looking to take new opportunities and improve your career in the gaming industry, especially when you do not have much experience on hand. We are all in this together.
